


Adventures in Autumn

by RedOrchid



Category: Diese kalte Nacht - Faun (Song), J’ai vu le loup le renard chanter (Traditional Song), Le Roi d'Aquitaine - Kurt Weill (Song), The Enchantment - Sheila Chandra (Song)
Genre: Dimension Travel, F/F, Fae & Fairies, Folklore, Gen, Huddling For Warmth, Light femslash, Magic, Multiple Selves, Quests, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-06 03:12:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11027400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedOrchid/pseuds/RedOrchid
Summary: When Autumn was nine years old, she met an odd group of creatures in the forest one night. Another nine years later, the quest they granted her is about to start.





	1. J'ai Vu Le Loup, Le Renard Chanter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Quillori](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quillori/gifts).



> I had the hardest time picking which of the four fantastic prompts to fill, until a little voice at the back of my head piped up and said _but what if you don't pick?_ And so I didn't, because all these songs lend themselves so amazingly to exploration, and floating in and out of them through the writing process was hugely gratifying.
> 
> So thank you, dear prompter, for such a great, creative challenge! Please enjoy. :D
> 
> And thank you to the exchange mods, who did a really great job, and were super helpful and understanding to people such as myself who clearly failed Geography and Timezones in school. XD.

Autumn woke with a start. She sat up in bed and turned around, looking carefully around the room for a sign of whatever had woken her.

Nothing. Her room was the same as when she went to bed, the only difference being how the light that was coming through the window had changed from the purple-grey of dusk to the deep blue and pale silver from the night and its full moon that had risen while she slept.

_And if, perchance, you ask for me, perhaps you’ll not me find…_

The words rose inside her mind, like a line of a song heard somewhere by chance and quickly forgotten. She frowned and pushed her blanket away, listening intently to the night as she quietly got out of bed and found her shoes, hat and coat.

The forest was strangely warm as she walked through it, hurrying down the path that went down towards old Mr Haywarth’s cottage. With every step she took, the song inside her head seemed to be growing stronger.

Her feet came to an abrupt stop as she arrived at a clearing—one that, this night, seemed to have grown to at least three times its normal size. Where Autumn remembered a moss-covered log now rose a glittering dome, extending towards the edges of the clearing. And inside it was…

Autumn quickly ducked behind a bush, eyes widening as she took in the scene in front of her.

_If he comes to the market to serve the Queen, he’ll send for me…_

Inside the dome, three figures were dancing, moving around the glittering core at the dome’s centre in slow, graceful circles.

One of them was a wolf, stalking forward on all fours and then rising up on its hind legs, momentarily morphing into a boy before fur grew back and he fell back down, continuing the dance.

_Sun and dark. Sun and dark. Sun and dark she followed him…_

The second was more difficult to define. Red fur and a long, sweeping tail that shimmered in and out of existence made Autumn think of a fox, but the animal parts were gone so quickly each time the transformation happened that there was no way for her to know for sure.

_Oh, open your door for me; let me in…_

The last was a girl with light-brown skin and hair, dancing with quick, jerky movements. Her long, brown hair was split in the middle, tied into braids on each side of her head.

After every three turns around the centre of the dome, the dancers stopped and reached towards it, half-hands, half-paws grasping silver cups filled to the brim with a shimmering liquid and bringing them to their mouths.

With every drink, the new round of dance that followed seemed to go a little slower, and the flickering of fur, and tails, and snouts grew more and more pronounced.

Autumn carefully stepped out of her hiding place and moved towards the dome. Nobody paid her any heed, even when she walked straight up to the edge and reached out a hand, touching the shimmering surface. The dancing went on, the song changing ever so often, like neither the dancers, nor whatever magic was keeping them captive could fully commit to just the one.

Autumn put both hands to the surface of the dome, and found, to her surprise that if she but added a small amount of pressure, she could make them sink inside. In front of her, the creatures were getting smaller and slower, shrinking into their animal forms and moving more and more sluggishly, as though all energy was seeping out of them and into the glittering core in the centre.

The girl with brown braids—a hare, Autumn could see now—was taking short, shallow breaths, her little nose trembling as she sank further and further down towards the green, forest floor.

 _She looks thirsty_ , Autumn thought, and, before she could question herself on the wisdom of her actions, she walked over to the small creek that ran on one side of the clearing and took off her hat, filling it with water.

Going through the dome was like being pulled down by a current in the river that ran through Autumn’s village, but she somehow managed to keep her hat pressed closed to her chest as her body spun and her feet started to move of their own accord, pulling her into the dance.

“Here, have some water,” she said, as a twirl brought her close to the hare. The hare turned its strange, glowing black eyes to her and then quickly put its face into the hat.

Once the hare had drunk its fill, Autumn danced over to the fox, then the wolf, repeating the offer to each of them. The animals drank their fill—Autumn’s woolen hat somehow managing to neither leak, nor run out of water until she was through them all.

The dome began to shake, and when the wolf raised his wet snout after drinking the water and turned towards the moon and howled, cracks began to form and spread, taking the dome down in a shower of sparks.

Autumn blinked, then raised her hands to her face and rubbed at her eyes, trying to get them used to the darkness that fell over the clearing as the dome broke. The moon was still clear and bright in the sky, and as her eyes adjusted, the three forms in front of her grew more human-looking: a boy with grey fur around his shoulders, a tail poking out from behind his legs, and teeth that looked a bit sharper than what Autumn thought was normal; another boy—or possibly girl, it was hard to tell—with unruly red hair, pointy ears and glittering green eyes; and the girl with brown hair the same colour as her skin, black eyes still glowing softly in the darkness.

“Welcome, child, and thank you,” the Fox said. “Through your generosity and ingenuity, you have broken us free from our dance. It will be richly rewarded.”

“How old are you, child?” the Hare said, tilting her head to the left.

Autumn straightened her shoulders, looking proudly back at the three of them. "I'm nine years old."

“In another nine years, then,” the Hare said, to which the other two nodded. “In nine years, you'll be given a quest: embark upon it, find each of us through your tasks, and we will grant you access to the faery realm.”

Autumn frowned. “What’s in the faery realm?”

“Magic,” the Wolf answered, and then held out his hand. Little sparks formed in his palm and then rose upwards and floated away like fire-flies into the night.

Autumn followed their flight with her eyes, and a wide smile spread on her lips. “Will I be able to do magic too?”

“Magic and more,” the Wolf assured here. “There is adventure everywhere, and countless fae to embark on them with. It’s the most marvellous place in all the worlds and times there is.”

“How will I know how to find you?”

“We'll each give you guidance in your dreams. When the time comes, use your dreams to find your way.”

With that, the Wolf raised his hand again. More sparks began to form, floating forward until they had Autumn all wrapped up, shining so brightly around her that she had to close her eyes. A floating sensation overtook her, and when she opened her eyes again, she found herself back inside her bedroom, blinking in confusion and already wondering if the strange encounter in the forest had been nothing but a dream.


	2. Le Roi D'Aquitaine

Nine years later, Autumn woke up and found herself on an unfamiliar floor made of thickly-cut floorboards. There was a small fire going in a hearth nearby, and the room she was in smelled of soot and, somewhat, as though several animals lived there. The explanation to the latter entered the room shortly after: a flock of ducks, all waddling towards her and quacking merrily.

She was a duck-keeper, she realised, after surveying the small cottage she was in and its accompanying garden. The daughter of many generations of duck-keepers, she found out later, after talking to the people in the cottage further down the road, who looked at her strangely and wanted to know if she had hit her head on something.

Why she was where she was and suddenly always partly covered in duck feathers was more of a mystery. After coming to terms with the idea that the meeting with the Wolf, Fox and Hare in her childhood must have been real, after all, Autumn carefully asked around, whether anyone had seen a person with red hair and a clever smile. Or perhaps a girl with brown skin and braids? Neither description got her anything but questioning looks, and asking about a boy with sharp teeth and a tail seemed, frankly, unwise in her current position.

So she kept her secrets to herself and focused instead on the ducks in her care. Most of them were speckled in brown and white, and seemed mainly interested in eating, sleeping and chasing eachother around the yard, but three of them were different: white, blue and grey in colour, and pretty odd in all sorts of ways.

The differently coloured ducks were haughty, for one, turning their beaks up at her when she came to give them food, and cackling angrily when she lead them to a pool of water to clean their feathers from the mud they'd got on themselves running around after it rained.

They also didn't want to sleep in the little shed with the other ducks, but insisted to be inside the little house, in her bed and stealing her pillow if they could manage it.

One of those nights, after Autumn had just evicted the blue duck from her bed  _ again _ , a dream started in which she could see herself standing in a marketplace, her three unusual ducks sitting on a vendor’s table.

The next day, she packed her cart and asked her neighbours for directions to the nearest town with a market.

“That'll be the capitol,” one of them said. “A good idea, too. That white duck of yours could surely bring you close to twenty francs.”

“The blue one will be harder, though,” the other one added. “It’s too small. Only four-five francs, I think. Six if you're lucky.”

The blue duck looked wildly offended at that, while the white one preened, and the grey one seemed to be rolling its eyes at both of them.

“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind,” Autumn said, and then she left with her ducks in the direction of the capitol.

She’d been standing in the sun in the middle of the busy market for almost a whole day, when there was a sudden commotion behind her. A man strode up to her table, six soldiers wearing the royal crest following close behind him.

“I was told that there was a duck-keeper showing some unusual wares in the market today,” the man said, looking at Autumn curiously.

The three ducks spotted the stranger and started cackling like crazy, pushing themselves up against the side of their cage and clamoring for his attention.

“Yes, these are them,” Autumn said, pushing down the fear that wanted to spring forward when the soldiers took a step forward, putting their hands on the pommels of their swords. “Are you interested in buying them, sir?”

“You can’t sell what doesn’t belong to you,” the man said. “Tell me, girl, how did you come to be in possession of these ducks? The absolute truth, if you please.” His eyes bore into Autumn’s, flashing with a silver light.

“I found them when I woke up from a dream, in a house I’d never seen before,” Autumn found herself saying. She quickly clasped her hand over her mouth, looking fearfully back at the man.

The man looked back as her, the same shock as Autumn felt mirrored in his eyes.

Then he smiled, and a set of familiar, pointy teeth came into view. Autumn felt her eyes widen.

“You’re the Wolf!”

“Shhh, not so loudly,” the Wolf said, and then turned around to his men, waving them away. “The child in the forest! I’ve been waiting for you. I’m I the first one you’ve found?”

Autumn nodded. Then she looked over to the ducks, who were still making an awful racket, and gave the Wolf a pointed, questioning look.

“Oh yes, the ducks are the lost princes of this kingdom,” the Wolf said, reaching for the latch of the cage and opening it. “A wizard enchanted them and stole them away. I’ve been helping the queen to find them. They call me the King of Aquitaine here—mostly as a joke, I must admit—but the name I usually carry is Printemps. Now, forest child, shall we go?”

“My name is Autumn,” Autumn replied. “And I’d love to go with you. But what will happen to the ducks now? And the Queen who is looking for them?”

“Oh, she’ll be fine,” Printemps said. “She'll find a magician to turn her sons back, or she'll just have to learn to love them the way they are. Now, before we go, are you sure you want to follow me? Or will you miss the ones you leave behind too badly if you go?”

“I'm an orphan,” Autumn said. “I live with our old neighbours, but I'm afraid they don't like me very much. They often say that I'm too adventurous, and that it's just a matter of time before I get taken by the faeries.”

“Well, let's go prove them right, then, shall we?” Printemps said with another toothy grin. “Now, close your eyes. It's time for your next task.”


	3. Diese Kalte Nacht

The next floor was cold—much too cold. when Autumn looked around the small room she was in, she saw that the window on the wall opposite her was open, and snow was coming through it, carried by strong wind.

She pulled herself off the floor and made her way over to close it. With the wind gone, some of the biting cold receded, and a thin blanket lying on a bed in the corner of the room helped thaw her limbs a little further.

Next, she went over to the door, but found it locked when she tried to turn the handle. There was a keyhole, but no key to be seen, and after searching every part of the small room for it, Autumn gave up and simply put her mouth to the keyhole.

“Hello?” she called. “Can anybody hear me?”

There was no reply. Autumn called out again, adding her fists to the wood to make more noise. Still no reply.

“All right, it seems my second tasks starts by getting myself out of this room,” she said to herself. She went over the contents of the room again, finding, to her relief a dresser full of warm clothes that she gratefully pulled over the thin dress she was wearing.

With the door locked, the window seemed her best option, so she got it open again and stuck her head out.

She was locked in a tower of a castle. Outside her window was a small roof, and she could see several others, as well as ridges and balconies further off. Still, scaling a castle wall in the middle of a snowstorm seemed a very risky path to take, and Autumn was just about to close the window again when she heard a weak voice calling out to her.

“Help! Please help! Open the door for me.”

Autumn looked back out, but everywhere she looked, she saw nothing but snow.

“Please let me in,” the voice came again. “The night is so cold.”

Autumn bit her lip in indecision and then went over to the bed and ripped the sheets from it. She tied them into a rope and fastened one end in the window, tying the other around her waist. The small roof beneath her window was slippery as she lowered herself down on it. She moved along the wall to the side she thought the calls for help were coming from, reaching a second roof before her homemade rope ran out, and she had to untie herself with shaky fingers.

The calls for help were closer now, and when Autumn rounded a turret, she saw a balcony, half of it built in as a cage, and a girl, dressed all in white, slumped against the cage door.

Autumn hurried forward, immediately starting to looking for a way to open the lock.

“Hi, there,” she said. “Don’t worry, we'll get you out of here.”

Close by, she could see that the girl's skin was pale to the point of almost taking on a bluish tint, and her braided hair was as white as the snow she was lying on.

“Who locked you up in here?” Autumn asked, pulling off the scarf she was wearing and handing it to the other girl through the bars of the cage.

“The Duke, who is also the master of this castle,” the girl replied. “He took extreme exception to finding out that I was courting his youngest daughter.”

“He sounds like a very mean man,” Autumn replied. “I woke up locked in a room as well. Up in the tower over there.” She pointed.

“That’s the tower the Duke said he was going to lock up my beloved in,” the girl said, eyes widening as she took a closer look at the scarf she was wearing. “And this is Lydia’s scarf. And you look like her and are wearing her clothes, yet I could feel the moment you stepped on this balcony that you are not of this realm. Who are you?”

“My name is Autumn, and I was transported here by a wolf, through a dream, I think.”

“Then you must be whoever Lydia is in the realm that you’re from, and crossing over, you have taken her place,” the other girl said. She tilted her head to the side, looking at Autumn more closely. “You do look a little different than her, and very different from when I last saw you, my lovely forest child.”

Autumn stopped working on the lock at that, looking up and meeting the girl’s eyes for the first time. They were completely black, the kind of eyes she’d only seen once before in her life.

“You're the Hare!” she exclaimed, thrilled at realising the girl’s true identity. “Oh! I'm so glad I found you. This realm isn’t very nice at all so far.”

“Likewise,” the Hare said with a small smile. “I’m afraid you won’t be able to break the lock like that, however. It’s made from iron to be able to resist both magic and brute force.”

“So how can we get it open?”

The Hare looked at her for a long time, as though she was debating the options with herself.

“There's a way,” she said eventually. “But I'm not at all sure it will work, and even it it does, you might not want to do it.”

“Tell me.”

“The cage itself is made from magic,” the Hare said. “It's made to keep things inside. But the spell only lasts until the morning.”

“Oh, that's good! That means we can just wait it out,” Autumn replied, only to realise her mistake a moment later and feel her face fall. “Except in this cold, and dawn looking like it’s still many hours away…”

“It'll be too late,” the Hare confirmed.

Autumn nodded solemnly. “So what can I do?”

“The cage only keeps things  _ in _ , it doesn't keep them  _ out _ . So if you press yourself against the bars and focus hard enough, you'll be able to slip inside as well.”

“And I have warm clothes,” Autumn said, understanding where the Hare was going with her words. “If we share body heat inside of them, that might last us both through the night.”

"It is also highly probable that we'll both freeze to death before the spell ends," the Hare said drily. “Just making sure that is clear.”

“Well, if you die, I wouldn’t be able to get out of here anyway, now would I?” Autumn said, already walking around to the other side of the cage. She put her body against it and closed her eyes, willing the bars to give in under her weight. 

The cage gave way almost directly, and Autumn fell through, letting out a yelp of surprise. The Hare caught her in her arms, and then immediately started pulling at the clothes Autumn was wearing, trying to figure out how to maximise their usefulness.

They ended up in the corner of the cage that was most protected by the wind, using the snow on the ground to add to their shelter. The clothes Autumn had found in the tower became a nest, keeping the warmth of their bodies inside as they wrapped themselves up in each other, skin against skin.

“You look different from when I last saw you, too,” Autumn told the Hare as they curled their naked legs together. She reached for one of the Hare's thick braids and let it run through her fingers. “All the brown is gone.”

The Hare shrugged and burrowed herself further into Autumn’s embrace. “That's what happens to hares when it snows. Come spring, I'll be back to my usual colours.”

“I'm sorry about your beloved,” Autumn said. “What happens to people when I take their place in the realms I travel through?”

"They get to come with you, of course, since they are simply other versions of you," the Hare replied. “I can tell you have Lydia-you with you now. She’s looking at me through your eyes just after you blink. There’s another girl in there as well. One that I don't think I have met yet.”

“Oh, that must be Genevieve!” Autumn exclaimed. “She’s great at baking and really cares for ducks.”

“She sounds lovely,” the Hare replied. “Sorry if this sounds strange, but would you mind terribly if Lydia got to borrow your shared lips for a little while?”

“My lips? Why would—oh.”

The Hare looked back at her with a meaningful smile, and Autumn suddenly felt a great deal warmer than before.

“I don’t even know your name,” she said, even as a small voice inside of her that had to be this realm’s version of her, started telling her that sharing a kiss or two with the Hare would be an altogether amazing idea.

The Hare let out a laugh that was both surprise and delight. “It's Winterzeit,” she told Autumn, and then tilted her head a little to the side again, looking at Autumn with her black, glowing eyes. “Is that a yes?”

Autumn nodded, and then, because she had a sudden inexplicable—or actually not inexplicable at all—urge to do so, leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to Winterzeit’s brow.

Winterzeit leaned into the touch for a moment, giving a pleased sigh, and then raised a hand to the side of Autumn’s face, tilting it down for their lips to properly find each other.

It was a strange sensation, kissing someone with another person's thoughts and feelings running the show, Autum thought, but not at all an unpleasant one. A bit like a dream, in fact.

And Autumn had always loved dreaming.


	4. The Enchantment

“Your Majesty, it is time.”

Autumn opened her eyes. The swirling snow and Winterzeit’s warm skin and warmer kisses were gone, and instead she was sitting on a throne, in a massive room, with dozens of soldiers lined up in front of her, wearing full armour.

She quickly looked down, noting that she was dressed in full armour as well. The captain in front of her who had just spoken cleared his throat, drawing Autumn’s attention back to her.

“Your Majesty, are you all right? We need to move out to the courtyard to meet your army very soon, but if you need a moment to collect yourself..?”

“No, no, I'm fine,” Autumn replied. She stood up from her throne and gave the woman a brisk nod. “Lead the way, Captain.”

The kingdom she’d landed in was heading out on a military campaign to prevent an outright war with one of its neighbours, Autumn learned from the Queen whose place she had taken. The other realm versions of herself—who were now all inside of her—were getting easier and easier to hear, and the four of them managed to have some great conversations together as the campaign advanced towards the border.

Autumn told them about the quest she was on, and what the Wolf, Fox and Hare had told her laid on the other side of it. The Queen, in turn told her about Reynardine, Le Marquis d’Été, who governed the kingdom they were heading towards.

“There are rumours that they can shift their form back and forth according to their will,” the Queen said. “Sometimes, envoys will come back telling stories about a king, while others have met them in the shape of a young princess, or an old woman, or a boy child. As you can understand, not knowing what they will look like from one day to the next makes it easy for them to spy on my kingdom; we have many visiting nobles coming and going.”

“And you think that’s their plan? To spy on your kingdom?” Autumn asks. “What are they looking to find?”

“How to exploit any weakness we may have to take over and add my kingdom to theirs,” the Queen replied. “Reynardine has never made it a secret that they covet my kingdom. Our direct access to the sea makes for much better trade relations with other kingdoms around us than they have sitting in their mountains.”

Autumn pondered this as the army made its way across rolling hills, entering the mountain ridge that separated the two kingdoms. They had ridden for another couple of hours when they found their path suddenly blocked by a person on a horse, a long, red plume decorating the top of their helmet.

“That’s Reynardine, and they will not have come alone,” one of Autumn’s captains told her quietly, and, sure enough, shortly thereafter, the sound of hooves clappering against rock could be heard, and an army began to form behind the lone rider.

“So let’s get these negotiations underway,” Autumn said, and signalled her horse to move forward. She reached the point that was right in the middle of where the two armies stood facing each other, and stopped there, waiting to see how Reynardine would respond.

Not even a minute had passed when Reynardine’s horse moved forward as well, coming to a stop right in front of Autumn’s. Autumn reached up and took off her helmet, showing everyone in both armies that it was the Queen herself who had come to meet her adversary. 

Reynardine did the same, and a smooth, young face came into view, topped with a mop of unruly red hair.

“My fair, pretty maid, I’m glad to meet you here,” they said, their voice a melodic mix of high tones and low that seemed to somehow belong in several different voices at once. “Your beauty shines. It is an honour.”

“You have been infiltrating my court again,” Autumn said, not bothering to reply to their flattery. “It goes against all diplomatic practice. If you don’t stop immediately, I will have no other choice but to declare war on your kingdom.”

“Perhaps you are mistaken,” Reynardine replied. “Come to my court and speak with my courtiers. They will tell you that I have not left the Green Castle for at least a fortnight. So much paperwork to do. You know how it is.”

“That sounds less like a polite invitation and more like a trap,” Autumn said. “Besides, I have witnesses that have seen you in my courtyard only ten days ago.”

“Witnesses that saw… what, exactly? This form? Or perhaps this one?” Reynardine’s face flickerd and then morphed into that of an older woman, her regal features a perfect offset to the white hair, on top of which a diamond-encrusted crown sat. The face of the old queen looked back at Autumn and then frowned. “No? Oh, dear. I do forget which form I take sometimes. Perhaps it was this one?”

Autumn’s eyes widened when the shape that formed in front of her was very much the face of a person she knew.

“That’s Printemps!” she exclaimed, then signaled her horse to move a little closer to Reynardine, looking him over more critically. The face of Printemps disappeared and the first face Reynardine had showed her came back to take its place, surprise written across its features. 

“How do you know one of my closest friends?” Reynardine demanded. “He’s never even been to this realm.”

“That may be so, but I have been to one of his,” Autumn said, and then added, “I’m the child you met in the forest nine years ago. Finding you was the last part of my quest.”

Reynardine just looked at her for a very long time—so long, in fact, that Autumn could tell that the people in both their armies were getting restless, wondering what was going on.

“My fair maid, I have been waiting for you,” they said at last, holding out their arm for Autumn to take.

Autumn smiled and rode forward, guiding her horse close to Reynardine’s and linking their arms together.

“The Queen and I will sign a treaty!” Reynardine called out to the armies on either side. “Negotiations will continue behind closed doors. Please make your way back to your respective homes!”

Autumn opened her mouth and called out the same information, adding orders to her captains to lead the troops back, which they reluctantly executed, even though Autumn could tell from their faces that they were most surprised, and not a little wary, of this sudden turn of events.

“There, that’s much better,” Reynardine said, once the last soldier had disappeared out of sight. “Now, my dear forest child, traveller, and—most recently—queen, are you ready for your next adventure?”

“Definitely,” Autumn replied.

Reynardine morphed again, his body taking the form of the same half-man, half-fox that Autumn had met in the forest, all those years ago.

“Then just follow the shine of my eyes,” the Fox told her, and then dismounted from their horse and took off running, into the mountains.

Autumn jumped off her horse as well and took off after them, the heart of every version of herself soaring as she ran.

 

* * *

 

 _Sun and dark, sun and dark_  
_Sun and dark she followed him_  
_Over the mountains high_  
_Sun and dark she followed him_  
_For his eyes so bright did shine_  
_And he led her over the mountain_ _  
_ Beyond the mortal line


End file.
